RELENTLESS FORWARD COMMOTION
RELENTLESS FORWARD COMMOTION

Myrtle Beach Marathon 2010 – Snowed Out

by 38 Comments

Last Updated on November 10, 2014 by Heather Hart, ACSM EP, CSCS

I don’t even know where to begin with this one. For those of you that haven’t heard yet, the 2010 13th annual Myrtle Beach Marathon and half marathon were canceled due to snow. About 3-4 inches to be exact, none of which was accumulated on the roads by race morning.

Needless to say, people are angry. Read the hundreds of comments following any of the online articles regarding this weekends events, or the race’s facebook page and you’ll see the tension. We’ve got angry runners who spent a lot of money to get here, and a lot of time training, in conditions much worse than this. Then we’ve got the locals. There are the ones who think that the runners are being a big bunch of babies, and the ones who are shaking their heads because the City of Myrtle Beach has once again shot themselves in the foot when it comes to pleasing tourists. A classic case of biting the hand that feeds you. Anyone familiar with the Harley bike week controversy going on around here knows exactly what I’m talking about.

I really don’t want to go into politics here on my blog, but let’s just say as a member of a household that relies on the tourism and service industry for their income, and who also lost thousands of dollars this year due to the lack of visitors during bike week, you can infer which side of the fence I’m on when it comes to our local government, and whom I believe they really have in their best interest.

All politics aside, many of you commented and emailed me asking what I think about all of this. So here’s what I think:

I think I’m totally on the fence about this one. Disappointed, angry, upset, and somewhat understanding. I think I’m glad I’m not the race directors. I think they were put in an impossible situation. As a resident of Myrtle Beach by way of Vermont, I can assure you that people in this area DO NOT know how to react to snowfall. In the 7 years I’ve lived here, I’ve seen maybe a dusting or two of snow. And during that dusting, the city shuts down. Yes, it’s ridiculous, but it is what it is. I laugh at some of you and your so-called “heat waves”. But what it all boils down to , is nothing we’ve had down here recently even compares to the 3+ inches we received Friday night. The truth of the matter is no one could know what the road conditions were going to be like Saturday morning, and this town does NOT have means of handling the possible conditions (no plows, etc).

The race directors stated Friday evening that they believed they would still be able to carry out the race safely, but the ultimate decision was left to the city officials. The city officials were the ones who deemed the race course unsafe at 10 pm the night before the race. I was obviously not at any of these meetings, so I can’t vouch that the race officials fought with everything they had to try and keep this race scheduled. I will , however, give them the benefit of the doubt and recognize that without the city’s support, the race couldn’t have gone on. They were between a rock and a hard place, no doubt.

Much of the course is only “closed” off by plastic orange cones separating the traffic from the runners and the cars…likely full of drivers who are inexperienced in driving in these conditions. Now that everyone is safe and no one was plowed over by a car possibly hydroplaning across some slush, it is very easy for people to say that this was a ridiculous decision and that the bad drivers should have just “stayed off the roads” (yes I actually saw that comment). I wonder what the forums and comments would be saying if and unfortunate situation did happen and a car blew through the middle of the pack taking out who knows how many people. YES a little slush is nothing to bat an eye at up North. Down here, people can’t even drive in the rain, never mind the snow. It is what it is.

 

That said, I was incredibly disappointed when I woke up race day morning to this site: Snowy grass and dry roads. No ice, nothing even close.
Arguing the case, as some have, that they should close down the ENTIRE road, because after all big cities such as Chicago and Boston do, is a mute point. There has never been a problem with this set up before, and honestly how were the race directors ever to imagine that we would get this crazy, once a decade snow fall on the night before the marathon. Really.

I DO think city officials should have allowed the possibility of delaying the race start by a few hours. Come on people, I LIVE and WORK in Myrtle Beach, and I promise you the ONLY thing going on this weekend is the marathon. It’s not like it’s mid July and having the roads closed a few extra hours is going to seriously hurt the city. It’s not, because if none of these people were here for the race in the first place, the streets would be a ghost town, just like it is the the rest of January and February.

A town that thrives on tourist dollars must cater to those tourists. End of story. Spoken, again, from a resident of this city.

There are talks of refunds/reimbursements/etc. I personally come from the understanding that when I sign up for an event like this, I run the risk of losing the money due to unforeseen circumstances. It’s just the way it goes. Read the fine print, when you click that little button on active.com you agree to this. Would it be nice if the City would fork over some of the money to allow the race directors to offer some kind of (hopefully large) discount towards next years race? Yes, that would be fantastic. But I’m not going to pretend I know exactly how the financial part of organizing a race works, and from what I understand, over half a million dollars of this not-for-profit race has already been spent.

So that’s where I stand, I guess.

It sucks. I am just as disappointed as the rest of you. I love this race and was really looking forward to it. I am not surprised by the city of Myrtle Beach’s actions (not saying they were the right actions, just saying, I’m not surprised). Will I be back next year? Yes. Would I come back if I spent thousands of dollars to travel and stay here for a race that never happened? Nope.

One thing I love about runners, is that you can cancel their race, but you can’t break their spirits. MANY kudos to the HUNDREDS of runners who showed up at the race start Saturday morning and ran the race regardless. Even more kudos to the city workers who showed up at the still set up finish line to hand out medals to those runners. I think that is fantastic. I’m kicking myself for not thinking of going. Holly and I did suit up and run our own little race in my neighborhood, on the dry roads. Highlight of the run was the guy outside playing with his family in the snow who asked if this was the marathon course, hahaha. Yes, we are the lead runners, you should see the other 5,000 in a few seconds here, haha.

We had a great rest of the weekend, and all of those details will come in part two. I bought bike, and I’m entirely too giddy about it 🙂

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Heather Hart is an ACSM certified Exercise Physiologist, NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS), UESCA certified Ultrarunning Coach, RRCA certified Running Coach, co-founder of Hart Strength and Endurance Coaching, and creator of this site, Relentless Forward Commotion.   She is a mom of two teen boys, and has been running and racing distances of 5K to 100+ miles for over a decade.  Heather has been writing and encouraging others to find a love for fitness and movement since 2009.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Great post! It is how the cookie crumbles. I am sure glad I am only out a few hundred dollars and time. I had a friend there from Chicago and he dropped close to a grand on the trip for His family.

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  2. I’m so late, didn’t know all this drama went down at MBM. The outcome really sucks, but your logic is spot on. As a NJ resident, I’ve seen many black ice accidents [and have been in one myself]. Once you skid on a black ice patch, its game over. Seems like the probability of pedestrian bowling was high, so while canceling the race totally BLOWS, at least everyone lived to run another day. Glad to know you guys still seized the day and ran anyway cuz that’s how us runner’s roll! 🙂

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  3. That really sucks that the race was canceled, but I totally understand why they made the call. I think I would have been one of the hundreds of runners that decided to run the course. You run at your own risk anyways whether it’s an official event or not.
    I’m glad you ended up doing a nice run with your friend! Enjoy the snow while it lasts! 🙂

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  4. Sucks about the snow and the cancellation of the course. BUT great job on still getting out there for your own run 🙂 Way to make the best of the situation.

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  5. I’m so sorry about the cancellation. The race that was supposed to be my first marathon (the Denver Marathon in 2005) was canceled at packet pick-up. I was sooo upset! I glad you got a good run in anyway.

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  7. I agree that no decision would have been the “right” decision. I understand that many feel cheated. But given the choice of angry runners vs dead/injured runners, there is only one decision that I would make. It sucks, but it is what it is.

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  8. Wow…even without spending money to get there, after all that training, the letdown must have been huge for people. But I understand the decision. People in snowy climates don’t get it, but when bad weather hits a warmer spot everyone freaks out. Here in Southern CA, people drive like idiots in the rain. I couldn’t imagine what would happen if we actually had some snow. The race directors can only control so much.

    I am glad you had your own little run, making the best of things.

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  9. It’s a hard decision. And there are always going to be people who disagree with the decision. We’ve seen a lot of that up here with all the snow we’ve gotten.

    The race directors/city did the best they could with the facts they had.

    Glad you at least got out for a run.

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  10. OMG! So sorry to hear your race was cancelled!
    ay, ay, ay…Wow, & at first I thought ‘you’re kidding?!, they cancelled it b/c of a lil’ snow?? but then when you mentioned the black ice & accidents…yeah, that’d be tough to navigate

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  11. That is pretty crazy, and I completely understand about the south not knowing how to function when it snows! So I guess the city felt it would rather err on the side of caution than have something crazy happen.

    But I can understand the big letdown of all those runners! That sucks!

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  12. What a bummer!! Similar happened to me for my first marathon in Chicago 2007. They canceled the race when I was at mile 20 and forced everyone to walk. This was of course due to the heat, lack of water (yes they did run out despite what the city said…they were passing out cups to drink the RIVER fire hydrant water!!), and the huge lack of emergency personnel. Either way, it was my first marathon. I was mad, angry, and sad. Gee….can you tell I am still bitter!!

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  13. Hi Heather,
    I am sorry that your MB half marathon was canceled due to the snow. Way to stay in the racing spirit and still dress up and run with your friend:) You girls look so cute:)

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  16. Heather–What a great attitude you have on the whole thing. You’re right–the race directors were surely between a rock and a hard place.

    On another note–can’t wait to see a pic of the bike. What fun!

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  18. I live in Birmingham and completely know what you mean about a city freaking out over a few inches of snow. I worried over our roads from the snow Friday night and was very thankful that the temperature got high enough Saturday to melt and evaporate just about everything. We had so many wrecks on the roads due to “black ice” Friday night. One a car hit a power pole and knocked out the power for a hospital. I can see both sides of the story, like you said. If one life had been lost due to someone driving and sliding on “black ice” then the city and race officials would have been in a MUCH harder place explaining every single decision made. People in the South don’t know how to drive in such conditions, so we have to err of the side of caution. Great post!

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  19. I had heard about the closure and was so disappointed to hear it. I guess living in Colorado where we have snow all the time and race it in constantly, 4″ wouldn’t be an issue but in a part of the country where it’s probably considereda blizzard, I see how city official deemed it unsafe. I wish for the runner’s sake they would have just postoned the race a few hours and let the streets get dried up but I’m so glad you persevered and got your run in nevertheless. Look how well-trained you’ll be for the next one :).

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  20. I read all of your tweets, and I am so sorry for you. I feel the pain – I had my first marathon called off due to a hurricane. I hope it helps them plan better for next year.

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  21. How hard it would be to have to make that decision? No matter what they decided they would not have made everyone happy. If someone had gotten hurt due to conditions then people would be in a uproar. The stress the director(s) would have been under. Wow.

    Unfortuate that they couldn’t hold the race but I think it was the safest choice.

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  22. one thing you can’t control is the weather. i’m sure the city was between a rock and a hard place and i’m guessing they made the decision based on safety.

    having said tht…sorry for the disappointment.

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  23. Awww, that sucks! It’s true though, cities that aren’t used to snow don’t handle it well at all. To be expected.

    I’m surprised that they don’t close down the roads anyway. I haven’t done a ton of races yet, but everything I have done has been on closed roads (or with traffic control at a crossing).

    Completely expected that many people would be super upset. Hopefully in time they can begin to understand the position the organizers were in.

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  24. I love this post. So many valid points! You’re so right, as like so many there things in life, there would have been no right decision. Whatever they would have decided would have had consequences. It is a bummer that they couldn’t just push it back a few hours especially for all the people who put their time and money into getting there =/

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  25. That sounds exactly like the city of New Orleans. Forever shooting themselves in the foot over some dumb cr@p.

    That bites they cancelled it. I have a race coming up at the end of Feb. I’d be angry/sad/etc. if it got cancelled. I’ve been traing for months.

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  27. wow! I didn’t know you actually lived down at MB. Coasting the redneck’s riviera, huh?

    yea we had some friends that were dissapointed in the outcome. but you’re very right, MB has no idea how to handle snow; they see it only once every decade or so. charleston is the same way.

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  29. Wow. Crazy! Love the people who ran it anyway, and the people who passed out medals. And you and your friend for getting out and running, too. That’s the spirit of the sport. Wish the city council had a bit of that in them.

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  32. You’ve made some great points here- mostly about SC’s inability to cope with any amount of snowfall! I too am a transplant from up north and while I tease when people start stocking up on bread and milk at the forcast of a mere dusting of snow, the truth of the matter is most counties here don’t even have ONE plow, let alone enough to keep the streets of a city clean and ice / slush / snow free. And people also don’t posess the presence of mind to say, “Oh, it’s bad out, I’ll just stay in.” They drive anyway, despite lack of experience. A girl drove her Jeep into my mother’s house during this storm (house and mother are fine). If my mom’s house wasn’t safe, I don’t think runners would have been very safe either.

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  33. Major props to the runners & city workers who carried on.

    It’s definitely a tough call to make, with logical arguments to be made on both sides. As a runner, I would’ve argued for a delay. As a mother/nurse, I would’ve agreed to the cancellation.

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  34. My in-laws live in Sumter and as soon as it snowed there, they came out here (to Utah) to get away from it! Haha! You guys have had more snow than we have had in the past few weeks. Crazy!

    Sorry about your canceled race, though. Total bummer.

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  35. I agree with you Heather. I thinnk they could have delayed it. I was signed up for the half and ran it anyway. I was not going to let all those months of prep go to waste! They really could have posponed it and gave a bit of hospitality and maybe stepped up blocking traffic. I am a resident and I would gladly postpone my day trip a couple hours to let a marathon go on.
    Pat

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  36. WOAH there is some serious thought into this post. Either way we had a great time in MB. Great weather (compared to Cinci– we came home to a HUGE snow storm) and we found an amazing new spa! WOOHOO.

    Consider yourself TAGGED> Sunshine! Check my most recent post 🙂

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  37. Great post from a local runner! I appreciate your insight from almost every angle. I was having trouble reading comments from non-runners…training for a race is not something that everyone understands. My husband and I travel to MB twice a year so we know how desolate it can be during the winter vs. the chaos of July. I have also witnessed how oddly terrible drivers in the South are…actually quite scary. I was to run the half marathon that morning and was totally devastated when it was cancelled. I was also one of the “renegade” runners who ran by myself and I was so glad I did. I was able to find another race near home on 2/28 so I figure my training hasn’t gone to total “waste.” Anyway, thanks for a very reasonable perspective on a very sensitive subject!

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